


meet and greet

by sunshineforthesoul



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, M/M, Poet!Nursey, chowder acts as a matchmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-23
Updated: 2019-05-23
Packaged: 2020-03-13 06:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18935206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshineforthesoul/pseuds/sunshineforthesoul
Summary: Dex’s breath caught in his chest.Derek Malik Nurse was gorgeous.He was laughing about something and Dex felt a swarm of butterflies in his stomach. His eyes briefly met Dex’s, and his mouth turned up in this incredibly sexy half-smile. He was twirling his pen lazily around his fingers.Dex knew he was a goner.





	meet and greet

**Author's Note:**

> also on [tumblr](https://sunshineeforthesoul.tumblr.com/post/185091772840/meet-and-greet)
> 
> check, please! and its characters belong to ngozi

Believe it or not, William J. Poindexter liked to read poetry. 

Every time someone discovered that fact—which admittedly wasn’t that often—they’d get a look of unmistakable surprise on their face, as if they expected the most interesting thing he’d read in his free time to be the refrigerator manual. (He’d read it before when he was bored, but that was _one time_ and he’d needed to know how it worked.) 

“William Poindexter” and “eloquent” never appeared in the same sentence, but he was fascinated with the ways poets could translate complex emotions and abstract ideas into words on a page. Or the way they could paint the most beautiful landscapes with such vivid imagery that Dex could see the fire of the sky at sunset, smell the salty brine of the sea, hear the rumble of an approaching thunderstorm, feel the gentle breeze of a summer day. 

His favorite poet was Derek Malik Nurse, who signed all of his poems as “Nursey”. 

The reason Nursey’s poetry had even entered Dex’s orbit was because of a gift from Chowder that was supposed to be a joke. Sort of. 

Dex’s last finals week of grad school had been kicking his ass. He hadn’t slept more than 3 hours at a time, he was fueled solely by black coffee and rage, and he’d been staring at the same computer for God knows how many hours.

“I give up,” he said, to no one in particular. He laid his head on the table. 

_I’ll just take a short nap. That’d be nice,_ he thought, as his eyes drifted shut.

He nearly jumped out of his skin as a book landed inches away from his face. His eyes traced a path upward to his roommate, Chris Chow. 

“Chowder, what the hell is this?” Dex said.

“Poetry.” 

Dex wrinkled his nose. “Tell me I misheard you.”

Chowder shook his head. “I was googling ‘ways to be less stressed’, and a lot of people recommend reading poetry.” 

Dex stared at him. 

“Well it was either that or yoga, so I figured this was the more likely of the two.”

Dex continued to stare at Chowder for a long moment, wondering if he should consider filing for a new roommate.

“Thanks,” he finally said, as monotone as possible.

It sat on his desk for a couple of days, untouched, until one particularly rough night Dex caught himself staring at it. 

“Oh for God’s sake,” he mumbled to himself. 

He, William Poindexter, was not going to read that book. He was not going to touch it, he was not going to look at it, he was not going to think about it. 

He reached out and flipped to the first page.

  


* * *

  


Dex owned every volume of poetry Nursey had published, dating way back to when Nursey was in grad school and starting to carve out a place in the world of poetry. He’d read and reread them again and again, discovering things he hadn’t before. Over time, he’d fallen in love with the words that had been imprinted in the back of his mind. 

Nursey wrote about a lot of things, but his most common topic was love. Whether they painted love in a positive or negative light, they overflowed with such intense passion it was as if his very heart bled from the ink on the pages. 

Though he knew it was stupid, Dex felt like Nursey was his metaphorical anchor. They’d been through a lot together—first loves, stressful jobs, every one of Dex’s heartbreaks. Maybe that’s what had drawn him to Nursey and kept him hooked for so long.

Chowder chirped him for his attraction to poetry, and more importantly, Nursey. Dex didn’t care. He could just go about his life, never needing to acknowledge how much he dreamt of being Nursey’s muse. 

Chowder, as it turned out, had other plans.

  


* * *

  


“You said your kitchen sink’s acting up?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll take a look at it.”

Chowder moved aside so Dex could enter his apartment. Dex set his jacket down, and began looking under the sink with a flashlight. 

“I dunno man, I’m not seeing anything out of place—”

“Nursey’s doing a book signing downtown this Friday,” Chowder blurted out. 

“What—Ow!” Dex hit his head on the counter as he turned to look at his friend. 

“We’re going.” 

“We are?” 

Chowder rolled his eyes. “Of course we are! You’re literally in love with the guy.”

The tips of Dex’s ears turned red, and he went back to his inspection. “Am not,” he muttered.

Chowder snorted. “Bullshit. You talk about him _all the time,_ and you get this starry-eyed dreamy look after you read his poetry.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m just telling the truth.” He shrugged. “Dex, we’re going to this book signing, even if I have to drag you there myself.”

Dex remained silent, suddenly fixated on a sink that was perfectly fine. 

“Look, I know you don’t like to see your heroes in person because of that time you were a kid and you went to take a picture with the Easter bunny and you saw him without the head on smoking behind the mall, but this is going to be different. For starters, this guy’s _real._ ”

Dex sighed. “Did you call me here just to tell me about the book signing?”

“... Maybe.”

“You’re not gonna let this go, are you?”

“Nope.”

“Fine. But next time you call about this sink, I’m letting your apartment flood,” he grumbled, knowing full well it was an empty threat. 

Dex pushed the book signing to the back of his mind. He was not going to get worked up over this. He was a reasonable person. 

What’s the worst that could happen?

  


* * *

  


They arrived near the tail end of the signing. There were less than ten people in line and they had a clear view of Nursey, sitting at his table. 

Dex’s breath caught in his chest.

Derek Malik Nurse was gorgeous.

He was laughing about something and Dex felt a swarm of butterflies in his stomach. His eyes briefly met Dex’s, and his mouth turned up in this incredibly sexy half-smile. He was twirling his pen lazily around his fingers.

Dex knew he was a goner. 

He turned to Chowder, pure panic in his eyes. “This is a bad idea.” 

“Why?” 

“Because if I go up there and try to talk to him, I’ll make a fool out of myself.” 

“Dex, you’re ridiculous.”

“He’s extremely attractive.”

“Dude, not to be weird but, so are you.” 

Dex frowned.

“Okay, well he’s not going to agree if you look at him like you’re about to kill him.” Chowder grinned. “It’ll be fine. Go up there and seduce him with your knowledge of the inner workings of dishwashers.” 

Dex elbowed him. 

“Actually, um, I have to use the bathroom, so you hold our spot. I’ll be right back.”

“Wait! Chowder—”

It was no use. Chowder patted his shoulder and disappeared behind the bookshelves. 

Dex took a deep breath and tried to calm his racing heart. 

Chowder was right. He was going to be fine. All he had to do was go up, get his book signed, and leave. 

A few minutes passed, and worry crept back into Dex’s mind. 

A few more minutes passed. He was up next and there was _still no sign of Chowder._

 _I’m going to kill him,_ Dex thought. 

“Good evening. What’s your name?”

 _Jesus Christ._ He was face to face with Derek fucking Nurse, and he was even prettier up close. Nursey’s inquisitive grey eyes stared right into Dex’s. 

“My name?” 

Nursey nodded.

“Will… W—”

One of Nursey’s eyebrows shot up, but his amused expression didn’t change. 

“I just—sorry. My throat is so dry.” 

“Have a sip of my water,” Nursey said, offering him his cup, unaware that Dex’s brain was currently short circuiting at the thought of his mouth being on something Nursey’s mouth had been on. 

“I can’t.” 

“Why not? You just put your mouth on the straw and suck.” God, Dex wanted to slap that smirk off Nursey’s face. Or kiss him. Whatever would make him stop looking at Dex like that. 

“Here. I’ll demonstrate.” Nursey raised the straw to his lips, took a sip, then held it back out to Dex. 

Dex rolled his eyes, snatched the cup from Nursey’s hand, and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. 

“There you go.” Nursey watched him set it down with a pleased grin. “So, what would you like signed?” 

Dex slid over his copy of Nursey’s first collection. He figured it made sense to bring the thing that had made him a fan in the first place. 

Nursey smiled. “Interesting choice.” He opened the front cover, took his black pen from behind his ear, and held it over the page. “Who am I making this out to?”

“William. My friends call me Dex.” 

“Dex,” Nursey repeated, and Dex was mortified at how much he liked the sound of it coming from Nursey’s mouth. “Cute.” 

Just that simple syllable was enough to make heat rush through Dex’s body.

“So Dex,” Nursey said as he wrote, “which one’s your favorite?”

“From this book?”

“Any of the ones you’ve read.” 

Dex thought for a second before words starting spilling out of his mouth. “I really like the poem about the kid catching fireflies, but he forgets to poke holes in the jar and they die? The first time I read it, it was pretty obvious it was a metaphor for possession, but I read it again and I started to see it in a different way. I think most people think it’s just about loving in a suffocating way which, in a literal sense, it is, but I kept thinking about the jar representing himself and why he wanted to catch the fireflies and I wondered if the kid felt empty inside and just wanted to be full of something beautiful...” 

Dex scratched the back of his neck, and raised his head enough to look at Nursey. 

Nursey was staring at him, eyes wide, the smug smirk on his face wiped completely off. His mouth hung open in a tiny “o” and Dex had to stop himself from leaning over the table and pressing his own mouth against it. 

“Holy shit,” he said so quietly, Dex thought he might’ve just mouthed it. His gaze didn’t waver, and Dex could feel waves of warmth radiating off his burning cheeks. 

Nursey pulled Dex’s book closer to himself, crossed out whatever he had started writing, and scribbled something else.

Dex registered the feeling of Nursey pressing the book into his hands, and thankfully managed to keep a grip on it. 

Nursey sat back down and the smirk reappeared on his face. “It was a pleasure to meet you Dex.”

“You too—I mean, fuck, it was nice— _really_ nice to meet you too.”

Dex turned and commanded his body to walk away without tripping. He headed for the exit to see Chowder standing by the front doors. 

“You son of a bitch.” Dex shoved him lightly. “You left me there to die.”

“Yeah well.” Chowder grinned. “Everything worked out, didn’t it?”

Dex glanced over his shoulder. Nursey was still staring at him. 

“Yeah. It did.”

  


* * *

  


_~~William~~ Dex,_  
_Thank you for supporting me since the beginning. I’d love to talk more over some coffee._  
_346-915-3311 Text me_  
_— Nursey_  
_P.S. You’re super hot when you blush_

**Author's Note:**

> hi! i'm not dead! 
> 
> i'm finally done with school—technically for about a week—and i'm trying to kickstart myself back into writing, so here we are. i could not think of a title for this for so long and that is probably the thing i hate most about writing
> 
> this is my first work in this fandom, but if any of you know me from tumblr, i've been swallowed by the dexnursey abyss and i want to write them but i also really want to read as many fics as i can so here i am, trying to do both 
> 
> tumblr [@omgdexnursey](https://omgdexnursey.tumblr.com/)


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